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| Hey Insiders! Today, we look at Spotify's Q2 earnings results and how it will change its podcasting focus for the future. We also dive into programmatic podcasting ad tendencies from around the world and a former late-night talk show host's new podcast. Scroll down to see some Quick Hits, like a new rewatch podcast for people who grew up in the '90s. Remember to tell us what subjects you want to be covered in the upcoming newsletter. Christopher
p/chris951156 | |
| 1 | | Spotify announced its Q2 financial results today and highlighted a record-setting subscription growth. The company added 10 million subscribers in the second quarter, the most in any quarter in company history. More: - The YoY increase was 17%, as Spotify's subscriber numbers have reached 220 million.
- The company earned $3.5B in revenue in the second quarter, sparked by new subscribers, and grew advertising revenue, up 12% to $446M.
- CFO Paul Vogel noted that podcast ad revenue "got better throughout the quarter" on the company's earnings conference call.
- Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said that the company has been "overpaying and over-investing" for podcast content over the past few years, and the company will be shifting its focus to steadying the investments they've made.
- He also stated that the company will rely on more data-driven decisions than it did when Spotify began investing in podcasting four years ago.
- In Q2, Spotify added 30,000 video podcast episodes to its platform, up from 70,000 in Q1 to 100,000.
Zoom Out: - Spotify also expects to see slower growth in subscribers in Q3 because of yesterday's announcement that it is raising its prices by $1 per month, the first price increase since 2011.
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| 2 | |  What the data says: U.S. podcasts tend to keep their podcast ads short, opting for more 30-second ads than longer ones 80% of the time. In contrast, Australian and New Zealand podcasts have 30-second ads only 56% of the time, and in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), it's only 73%. U.S. podcasts also rely on ads that feature a single person doing voiceover more than the rest of the world. 86% of U.S. ads featured just one person, while that was the case in only 68% of ads in Australia and New Zealand and only 66% of EMEA ads.
Relevance: Acast and Veritonic released a joint study of the similarities and differences of programmatic podcast ads bought worldwide. In April, the two companies teamed up to analyze commonalities in programmatic podcast ads worldwide. More data: In the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, branded elements of the ads highlighting who made it was at the end of the ad almost uniformly. In EMEA, that was the case only 33% of the time. For voiceovers, 50% of ads in the U.S. use a female voice and 47% use male voices, and 3% use both. 53% of ads for Australia and New Zealand had a female voiceover, while 27% had a male, and 20% had both. 47% of EMEA ads had a female voiceover, 27% had a male, and 26% featured both. | | | |
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| 3 | | Amidst both the Hollywood writers' strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike affecting actors, some are turning to podcasts. Former late-night talk show host and TV writer Craig Ferguson has announced that his new podcast, Joy, A Podcast, will debut on August 1. More: - It was announced in February that Ferguson and iHeartMedia would team up for a podcast, but the start date was unknown.
- The podcast will have Ferguson interview a variety of guests that span different industries, including entertainment, science, and government, and ask them where their joy comes from.
- Initial guests on the podcast include comedian Gabriel Iglesias, pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, actress Angela Kinsey, TV show host Kathie Lee Gifford, actor Diedrich Bader, comedian Lewis Black, actress Wendie Malick, rock star Shirley Manson, and comedian Tom Papa.
- Ferguson compares his show to the popular BBC series Desert Island Discs.
Zoom Out: - Ferguson hosted The Late Late Show for CBS from 2005-2014. His other hosting gigs include Celebrity Name Game, ABC's The Hustler, and History's Join or Die. Most recently, Ferguson was a writer on the British television series Doc Martin.
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| 4 | | The BBC World Service is trying to inform Gen Z about the news with the announcement of its new What in the World podcast. The new series targets 16- to 24-year-olds, presenting global news for the age range. More: - The show will launch on July 31 and release episodes daily, Monday through Friday.
- It will be hosted by Hannah Gelbart and will explore news to enhance listeners' knowledge across a range of topics.
- According to the UN, about a quarter of the BBC World Service audience is considered a Gen Zer.
- The series will feature journalists from across the BBC's 42 language services as frequent guests, providing views of what life is like wherever they are in the world.
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| 5 | | The Open Podcast Prefix Project (OP3) has just been launched and will provide free and open-source podcast prefix analytics services. It is different from other analytics services because "it's an open and auditable machine," according to the site. More: - This will allow people to see a specific podcast's listener numbers without compromising privacy.
- It runs on a global CDN with edge nodes across 275 cities in more than 100 countries.
- It is one of the fastest podcast redirect services already.
- For users curious about how OP3 sees itself for the future, it has laid out its plans in a GitHub readme.
- With step-by-step directions on how podcasters can introduce it for their own shows, it's a simple solution for sharing audience numbers.
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| 6 | | Pocket Casts, the popular podcast app, announced that it is adding star ratings to its platform for podcasts. With the latest version of the app, users can now see a podcast star rating when viewing the show's details. More: - The ratings displayed are from several third-party sources, one being Apple Podcasts.
- The data is taken and processed through Pocket Casts' custom aggregation algorithm, which utilizes different factors before generating a rating for each podcast.
- Users are not able to add their own ratings yet.
- Ratings are only available for public podcasts, and different shows may not have ratings yet because they don't have enough ratings or data.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Invest in Virtuix before they ship their VR treadmills to their waitlist, a $100M opportunity. This opportunity ends on 8/10.*
- Dave Coulier, who played Uncle Joey, announced he is hosting a Full House rewatch podcast called Full House Rewind.
- NPR's Car Talk+ will be a subscription-based channel with over 800 episodes from Car Talk's 35-year run.
- The Britsh Podcast Awards announced the 2023 nominations.
- Discover how collagen helps reduce loose skin, deep wrinkles, and dark spots.*
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INSIDE PODCASTING LEADERBOARD (ALL-TIME) |
 | Freelance Editor | | Christopher Hachey is a freelance writer and editor based in the New York City area. He has spent most of the past 15 years in newsrooms covering all kinds of topics like sports, tech, business, finance, and commerce. He's now returning to his broadcast journalism roots by diving into podcasting news. Reach out to him at chris@inside.com | | This newsletter was edited by Vibha Chapparike | |
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